Robert W. Baird Has Lowered Expectations for Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Stock Price

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its target price reduced by investment analysts at Robert W. Baird from $310.00 to $295.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “neutral” rating on the electronics maker’s stock. Robert W. Baird’s target price points to a potential upside of 14.04% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on AYI. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Acuity Brands from $336.00 to $290.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 28th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $327.60.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $258.68 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Acuity Brands has a fifty-two week low of $217.64 and a fifty-two week high of $345.30. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $296.13 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $303.96. The firm has a market cap of $8.01 billion, a PE ratio of 19.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.67 by $0.06. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.38 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AYI. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth $42,000. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Company Profile

Acuity Brands, Inc provides lighting, lighting controls, building management system, location-aware applications in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Acuity Brands Lighting and Lighting Controls (ABL); and the Intelligent Spaces Group (ISG). The ABL segment provides commercial, architectural, and specialty lighting solutions, as well as lighting controls and components for various indoor and outdoor applications under the A-Light, Aculux, American Electric Lighting, Cyclone, Dark to Light, eldoLED, Eureka, Gotham, Healthcare Lighting, Holophane, Hydrel, Indy, IOTA, Juno, Lithonia Lighting, Luminaire LED, Luminis, Mark Architectural Lighting, nLight, OPTOTRONIC, Peerless, RELOCWiring Solutions, and Sensor Switch.